Car floor construction



1939- D. H. BELL CAR FLOOR CONSTRUCTION INVENTOR. -4 6544' Filed Nov. 25, 1936 ATTORNEY.

Patented July 11, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CAR FLOOR CONSTRUCTIUu Application November 25, 1936, Serial No. 112,682

Claims.

This invention relates to the arrangement of the control links and cables in street cars and has for its object to provide an improved arrangement thereof and a conduit system there- 5 for which will afford greater protection against corrosion and interference of operation with a consequent increased reliability.

It has heretofore been the custom to assemble the wiring, cables, controls, etc., piece by piece 0 on a car body during the course of its construction. The result has been that each crew of workmen made the assemblies and arrangements according to its own notions. Lack of uniformity not only has caused a great deal of con- 1. fusion in the service shops but has proven inefficient from a production standpoint. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improved conduit which will conduct the control links and cables to a predetermined point for connection to assemblies which have been uniformly assembled on a bench before attachment to the car body.

Heretoi'ore these cables and links have usually been led from the operator's position directly beneath the car body frame and hence rear wardly to points of use. A specific object of this invention is to form sections of the car flooring as conduits for the cables and links, these sections being of equal thickness with the remainder of the flooring and covered jointly therewith by a floor covering.

Other objects and advantages will become hereinafter more fully apparent and reference is had to the accompanying drawing wherein my invention is illustrated and in which- Fig. 1 is a plan view of a street car floor constructed with conduits in accordance with my invention, the conduits being in section,

Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section taken along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal vertical view along the line 3-3, and

Fig. 4 is a vertical section through the floor showing the terminal means to which the cables 46 and links are connected, in elevation.

More particularly, Fig. 1 shows the floor l of a street car with the floor covering removed to expose the conduits 2, 3, I, 5, 6, 1, 8. These conduits are of equal thickness with the floorboards 50 9 and lie on top of the cross sills I0 and II so that they form a part of the car flooring. The covering I2 covers them in the same manner as it does the boards 9.

The conduit 2 extends substantially the length 56 01 the car, from adjacent a battery l3 at the rear of the car to the motormans seat platform I. The Wiring 21 therein extends from the battery l3 to a point below the platform I4 whence it is lead into the wall l5 of the car and thence to an instrument panel I 6.

The conduit 3 extends from beneath the drivers seat platform M to the cross member l0. Projecting through the platform l4 are foot pedals ll, l8, l9 connected to a rod 20, 2! and 22 respectively. The conduit 3 houses these rods 10 which terminate at levers which operate the accelerator control drum 23, the motor reverser drum 24 and the brake controllers 25, respectively. Incidentally, the brakes herein contemplated are a combination of dynamic brakes, 15 magnetic track brakes and air brakes and are not fully illustrated herein.

The bottom or cover 32 of this conduit 3 is at least partially removable preferably in sections with spaced removable sections each carrying N rollers 26 for supporting the rods along their lengths.

The lines 21 leading from the battery I3 carry current at low voltage, 32 volts being now used. This conduit also serves to carry the high volt- 25 age lines 28 to the instrument panel Hi, this high voltage line being conducted from the main line switch 29 along the cross sill l0 and into the conduit 2 at this point. The high voltage line is employed at the instrument panel for the car 80 lights and cab heater whereas the low voltage lines operate the gong, auxiliary heaters, etc.

Extending forwardly and rearwardly from a large conduit section 6 are the conduit branches 4, 5, 1 and 8. These branches extend to points 35 substantially above the motors 30 carried by bogie trucks. These branches house cables leading from the motor controllers and dynamic brake controllers to the motors, it being understood that 'the lines, after leaving the conduit brakes M are given sufiicient length to accommodate movements of the trucks and motors carried thereby with respect to the car body. The section 6 may be considered as a transverse section extending from the conduit branches 5, 8 to the branches 4, 1.

These conduits may be of sufficient breadth to require internal bracing and in this case I recommend a construction as best illustrated in Fig.

2 in connection with the conduit 2. This conduit is constructed with a crease along its length to form a partition 3|. Advantage is taken of this compartment construction to separate the high and low voltage lines. The single base or cover 32 may cover both spans of the conduit. The

cover may reside in the plane of the bottom of the floor boards 9 or it may be dropped therebelow on each side of the cross-sills, as desired.

What I claim is: 1. In a rail vehicle, a car body having flooring consisting of body sills, floor boards resting on top of said sills and rectangular conduits of equal thickness with said floor boards, a panel located substantially centrally of said body beneath said flooring and serving as a support for motor controls, brake controls and the like, motors fore and. aft of said body, and cables andlinkagesextending through said conduits to said panel and from said panel to said motors, said conduits com prising hollow elements of said flooring housing said cables and linkages for the major portion of their lengths.

2. A conduit system for a vehicle comprising a transverse conduit, a plurality of parallel conduits extending forwardly and rearwardly of said transverse conduit, all of said conduits being of substantially equal thickness with the floor boards of the vehicle flooring and constituting a part of said flooring.

3. A conduit system for a vehicle of substantially H shape in plan view with each leg and the transverse portion thereof being of rectangular cross-section, all portions being of equal thickness with the floor boards of the vehicle flooring and constituting a portion of said floor- 4. In a vehicle body, the combination 01' body sills, floorboards covering said sills and a conduit of equal thickness with said floorboards forming a floor, said conduit extending longitudinally of the body and terminating at a second conduit extending transversely of the body, said second conduit being of the same thickness and lying in the same horizontal plane as said first mentioned conduit.

5. In a vehicle body, the combination of body sills, floor boards resting on top of said sills, a rectangular conduit of equal thickness with the floorboards extending parallel with the floorboards and forming a portion of the car floor, and rollers rotatably mounted in said conduit, the lower wall of said conduit being at least partially removable for assembly, inspection and replacement of said rollers.

DAN H. BELL. 

